Aldus and Adobe both figure in this issue, with a rumor about FreeHand, a charting module from Aldus, and a new font licensing policy from Adobe, which makes it easier for print shops to own lots of fonts. We note the new version of CDU from Connectix and list shipping software for the Power Macs (lots of international companies on that list!). Rounding out the issue, Matt Neuburg and Adam focus on the small Macintosh developer.
Mark Anbinder sent in a correction from last week: "After we wrote in TidBITS-229 that Maxima owners could order upgrades to the new 3.0 version with Visa, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover credit cards, a reader told us Connectix doesn't currently accept Discover
Pythaeus suggests that Scitex may buy Altsys and attempt to settle some litigation in the process. Apparently, Altsys, the original developer of FreeHand, is suing Aldus over Aldus's recent merger with Adobe, since Altsys either wants FreeHand to stay alive or to come back to Altsys
Connectix recently released version 1.0.4 of CDU (Connectix Desktop Utilities), which offers the ability to gracefully shutdown after a user-specified period of inactivity, and to re-open all previously open applications and documents when you turn on the Mac
Aldus is shipping ChartMaker, an applet that provides sophisticated charting capabilities at a list price of $149. ChartMaker works via OLE 1.0, Publish and Subscribe, or the clipboard to add charts to documents created in other programs (you can't print directly from ChartMaker)
Director of Technical Services, Baka Industries Inc.
Citing a change in the way computer users work with fonts, Adobe Systems Inc. last month announced a change in its licensing policy from a per-printer approach to a per-computer system approach
More and more companies have shipped products that run in PowerPC native mode, and to assist you in keeping the score card up-to-date, here's Apple's list of all commercial shipping products
You may recall my article "The User Over Your Shoulder: The New Technologies Treadmill" in TidBITS-207 pointed out that Apple has recently been churning out new hardware and software technologies at a great rate, and trying to whip developers into a frenzy to adopt them
Matt Neuburg's article above touched a nerve in me almost immediately, not so much because I disagree with him (I don't) but because I've had a number of email discussions with people over the last few months that tie into it